Well based on this post I jumped on a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones and it has been quite the adventure. I got lucky and got the headphones below $299 a little after when this was posted.

It took me forever to get the sound dialed into my liking and hear the awesomeness from these headphones. This is the short of it.

1st there was the break in which took about 2.5 weeks. I found the sound was still lacking so I then jumped on the upgrade cable specifically for these headphones from Furutech. The sound still improved but was still sounding eh from my solid state headphone amp. Through some reading I found OTL headphone amps can make these headphones sing. I was able to secure an Antique Sound Lab OTL headphone amp but bass was too boomy. I was at a Guitar Center and bought the Groove Tubes EL84 tubes from Slovakia with normal distortion. Those tubes combined with a Raytheon 12AX7 NOS tube gave me music heaven. I'm not changing now.

If you score the Sennheiser HD 650s be patient. Getting them to sound good in your rig can take a bit. I'm happy I stuck through it.

Well based on this post I jumped on a pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones and it has been quite the adventure. I got lucky and got the headphones below $299 a little after when this was posted.

Nice! Glad you were able to find an even better deal.

Admittedly, I haven't pulled the trigger on a new set of headphones. I'm suffering through a bit of analysis paralysis. I may just hold off until the next Can Jam at RMAF so I can sample a number of different HPs, and then I can zero in on something I've "kicked the tires" on a bit.

I wonder how the Schiit Fulla 2 would pair w/this for an office set-up off my mac, or would the Magni 2 be a better small office amp...Or I just bide my time and make a bottlehead amp....

Open back for office is probably not ideal... but people rarely come in. I was thinking Oppo PM-3... but at 2x...

Boy am I glad I jumped on the Sennheiser HD 650s. New they are now $315 on Amazon. If you were in a rush I'd say go for the MassDrop HD 6xx headphones. For me I'd rather get the original HD 650 used. At least you won't have to deal with the break in process. Regarding amplification IME I still say an OTL headphone amplifier mates really well with the 650s. The Woo Audio WA2 was recommended to me by Audio Advisor. Many have told me the Bottlehead Crack OTL with Speedball upgrade is a great match too. For my office set-up I've always liked the BeyerDynamic DT770 Closed back headphones.

That's the other closed back HP I'm considering. Do you have the 80 Ohm version? I've had a price watch on that one on camelcamelcamel... for some time, but it has yet to cross the threshold. It has come back down.

Happy with the DT770?

I have those velour earpads on some cheepy Panasonics (HTF600) and love the comfort...

I actually have the DT 770 600 Ohm headphones. For some reason with the 80 Ohm DT770s there was noise I could hear but it could have been my Bravo tube amp I was using. With the DT 770 600 Ohms I used the Bellari HA 540 headphone amp and it was a wonderful pairing. I switched to the leather pads though. I got so lucky to score the DT770 600 Ohms lightly used.